columns
- 1Plural of column.
Marble columns lined both sides of the grand hall.
The spreadsheet sorted the data into neatly labeled columns.
Note
A regular plural that carries every sense of the singular with it: marble supports, the vertical fields of a spreadsheet, troops strung out along a road, blocks of printed text, and the recurring opinion pieces a periodical runs. In advertising it can also count width. The same spelling also names a juggling pattern, where it is the name of one pattern rather than a count of several things.
- 2A juggling pattern in which props are thrown into the air alternately, each rising and falling in its own vertical path.
Like pistons in an engine, each prop rises and falls in its own line.
The performer opened her act with columns, sending each ball straight up and down.
Many jugglers find columns easier than cascades because the props never cross.
Note
The name borrows the picture of upright pillars from the architectural plural: each prop rises and falls in its own straight track. Although the word is plural in form, it names a single pattern. A juggler performs columns the way one performs a cascade. What sets it apart is the alternation of the throws and the fact that the props never cross.
columns is a form of column
column, noun: A solid upright structure built to support something above it, such as a roof or beam, or sometimes added just for decoration. Full entry
- Forms
- columncolumns plural
- Spelling
- column → columns: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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